Europeans Growl at Rating Agencies After Portugal Downgrade

By

Mark Gongloff

Jul 6, 2011 12:34 pm ET

AFP/Getty

Nobody likes credit rating agencies any more, it seems, least of all Europe, the future of which seems to rest in the fragile hands of said agencies. Europe is fighting back by threatening to make them irrelevant, somehow.

The raters have certainly made Europe’s life more difficult in recent days by giving the stink-eye to plans to roll over Greek debt. And they have been steadily downgrading European sovereigns for months, capped by Moody’s cutting Portugal to “junk” yesterday, which has further roiled European markets.

Michel Barnier, European Commissioner for internal markets, this morning fired a warning shot across the agencies’ bow, according to Reuters:

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